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LATIN-AMERICAN NEWS ASSOCIATION 

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What the Catholic Church has done to Mexico. 

A short historical sketch of the work and influence wrought by the 
CathoHc Church in Mexico since 1521, will not be found uninteresting 
to the Catholics, Protestants, Jews and even the Mormons of this 
country. American Catholics claim they do not tamper with politics; 
that this is one of the reasons for their high standing in the com- 
munity. Lately, however, there has been a change in this policy ; high 
dignitaries of the Church have come out in the press with worldly 
opinions on subjects such as suffrage and Mexican affairs. They have 
attacked the representatives of the different parties in Mexico and 
members of the Wilson administration have not escaped, but this same 
Church and friends have consistently defended Huerta and his regime, 
and have initiated a campaign of agitation against the Constitutional- 
ists in favor of American Intervention. 

If the high dignitaries of the Catholic Church want to meddle in 
politics then they surely must not claim immunity from counter attacks 
or hide under the cloak of religion or of their own sacred personalities. 
Besides, the American Catholic laymen want to be informed of both 
sides of the controversy. 

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When Hernando Cortez had conquered Mexico in 1521, he soon 
realized that soldiers alone could not control the millions of Indians 
which had come under the rule of the Spanish king. Thousands of 
priests, nuns and friars were, therefore, imported from Spain; the 
priests soon settled in the cities and the monks in the country. They 
established and built monasteries and churches from Uruguay to Cali- 
fornia. In 1524, four Bishoprics were founded, in 1571 the Holy 
Inquisition was established by the Dominicans and two years later the 
first "auto da fe" act of faith took place. The Jesuits arrived in Mex- 
ico in 1572. It can be safely asserted that the colonization of New 
Spain was achieved by the different religious orders ; they christianized 
the Indians and made them work on churches, monasteries and on their 
farms for their own benefit. 

The Jesuits and the Franciscans did endeavor to foster learning in 
the new land, but with limited success, owing to the fact that they 
taught only the sons of Spaniards and the Indians they taught to 
memorize the prayers in their own language. Although they were ex- 
pelled in 1767, their work was very useful and they made themselves 
conspicuous from the other orders in the zeal with which they noticed 
ihe observances of their own rules. They were the teachers of the 
Creoles and mestizos of New Spain, and dominated by their science, 
sobriety, chastity and their insinuating spirit. 

It is a strange commentary on the logic of Catholics that they 
consider the expulsion of religious orders from Mexico under the 
Laws of the Reform (1859) for meddhng in politics, as an unjust 
measure and an attack on religious liberty, when as a fact, they never 
protested when that most Catholic majesty, the king of Spain, Charles 

3 



Hi, expelled the Jesuits from Spain and from New Spain because they 
were accused of playing politics. Besides, they were suspected of enter- 
taining . certain doctrines on regicide; that is to say, the right to kill 
rulers when they were tyrants. There was an attempt on the life of the 
Portuguese sovereign and as the Jesuits were accused as being re- 
sponsible for it, they were exiled from Portugal. The same measures 
were taken against them in France. Not only were the Jesuits ex- 
pelled from Spain and the whole of New Spain, but their property and 
real estate were confiscated. They possessed great capitals, outstand- 
ing loans, haciendas, houses and churches. 

In the three hundred years of Spanish rule in Mexico there were 
sixty-two viceroys, out of these, ten prelates, mostly of the Dominican 
order, held office as viceroys ad interim. The Dominicans had been 
the dominating power in Mexico. The influence of the religious 
orders was beneficial until the end of the sixteenth century. Their 
religious zeal went so far in the beginning, that all vestige of Aztec 
and other pre-Spanish civilization was destroyed by order of the friars. 
Thus many very valuable historical documents, such as old parch- 
ments, books, maps, Aztec statuary, teaocallis or temples, were lost to 
the world. 

Among the most prominent representatives of the Church we must 
mention such men as Fray Vasco de Quiroga, a real saint who was 
venerated for his Christian virtues. Fray Pedro de Gante, related to 
Charles V of Spain, known as a teacher and an organizer of schools 
of industrial arts. Fray Bernardino de Sahugan, author of books on 
pre-Spanish history, as well as Fray Javier de Alegre and the famous 
Fray F. J. Clavijero. 

These names, as well as others, should be inscribed on the golden 
scroll of pre-Spanish history; nevertheless there is a seamy side to 
this silver lining. 

As soon as this religoius order became wealthy, the spiritual part of 
its work was neglected and a majority of the clergy became imbued 
with the idea that their power over the colonists would be increased 
with their wealth and their political importance. Many prelates con- 
sidered themselves superior to the military and civil authorities as was 
the case with the Archbishop Don Juan Perez de la Serna. 

The then viceroy. Marquis de Gelnes, incurred the enmity of this 
strong-willed prelate, who rebelled against the authority of the viceroy 
and was arrested. Thereupon De la Serna ex-communicated all his 
military guards and later even the viceroy. Things came to a point 
when the Archbishop's friends incited the people to real munity; con- 
victs were liberated from prisons and attacked and looted the royal 
palace. The viceroy had to flee for his life, from Mexico to Spain and 
when another viceroy was sent to Mexico, Archbishop De la Serna was 
asked to appear before the King of Spain, who punished him by mak- 
ing him Bishop of Zamor in Spain. 

During Spanish rule in Mexico a discussion arose in the mother 
country by a council of theologians as to whether the Indians had a 



soul and if they were "gente de razon," that is to say, reasoning beings. 
It must be remembered that a question similar to this came up for 
discussion in Europe in A. D. 585, at the Council of Macon, as to 
whether woman possessed a soul. It was finally decided that she had 
all the possibilities of one. In the case of the Indian, they cut the 
gordian knot by saying that the Indians were men, but not quite fin- 
ished or complete, more like children or minors and that, therefore, 
they should be sub j ect to their masters and protected by their king and 
the Church. It can be readily imagined what kind of protection the 
poor Indian received, especially with monks as masters. When the 
Indians were told that they were under the protection of the king and 
the Church, they answered resignedly : "The king is in Spain and God 
is in Heaven." 

The Inquisition or the Tribunal of the Faith. 

The Holy Inquisition inquired with all available means into the 
thoughts and actions of men in religious matters. Not only the 
accused but likewise the informer were forced under penalty of torture 
to reveal family secrets. The tribunal was secret; therein resided 
its power. Its authority was unlimited as it did not depend upon any 
other court. In its absolutism it disposed without scruples of the 
liberty, honor, wealth and even life of any person. It imprisoned, 
defamed, confiscated, condemned to the "garrote" (strangulation by 
means of an iron collar), and it burned at the stake. Those accused 
of heresy were not confronted by their accuser. They were kept in 
solitary confinement, sometimes for years, until they underwent the 
torture to compel confession. 

Judgment usually ended in exile, by imprisonment to the gallows, 
public whipping or death. Not even the dead or the absent escaped 
punishment ; the bones of the former were incinerated, the latter were 
burned in effigy. There were special and general "autos da fe." In 
1596 ten heretics were burned at the stake in Mexico City, mostly 
Jews and Protestants. An "auto da fe" was considered an excuse for 
a feast day. 

During the ten years of the struggle for Independence the Inquisi- 
tion persecuted the revolutionists and the inquisitors were called the 
agents of despotism. Hidalgo and Morelos were the most conspicuous 
victims and martyrs of the Inquisition. Abad y Queipo, Bishop of 
Michoacan excommunicated Hidalgo in September, 1810 and in De- 
cember of the same year received him under a pall in Valladolid 
(Morelia) and celebrated his victories against the Spanish troops with 
a solemn "Te Deum" in the cathedral. A few years later the clergy 
became the alleged ally and protector of the successful revolutionists. 

After the restoration of the Constitution (of 1812) in Spain, in the 
year 1820, the Inquisition was abolished in Mexico where it had enacted 
its judgments for the space of 294 years. The building of the Inquisi- 
tion in Mexico City is now used as the Academy of Medicine. When 
the Inquisitorial office was abolished in 1820, in its dungeons was dis- 
covered, according to the account of an eyewitness "the Jew Chrisantos 



Granados, called El Guatemalteco, true descendant of the Jews, who 
had been expelled from Portugal in the eighteenth century. He had 
on the crown of his hat a treiatise on logic, which was his heresy. 
Another dungeon was unsealed and from it was taken out, one who 
looked like a skeleton, with a long beard. His crime consisted in 
speaking in favor of the Independence. He had also some lines on 
heresy, because he defined logic as the faculty of the human mind to 
direct all action in order to discover the truth. Faint cries in another 
dungeon brought the searchers to a naked, old man, who had his hands 
and feet in iron rings attached to a wooden cross. He had been there 
thirty years. The captain left the janitor like Adam, in order to 
clothe the skeleton of this martyr. 

"There were thirty-nine prisoners and they, thinking that they were 
all going to be burned, asked : 'What is yoing to happen to us ?' and the 
captain answered : 'Nothing, you. are going to be free, for the Con- 
stitution of the year 1812 has been sworn by his majesty, the King of 
Spain and in virtue of that, this cursed tribunal is abolished.' The 
prisoners were taken before the viceroy, Don Juan de Apodaca, Count 
of Venadito, who gave them some money. Some had been in prison 
so many years they knew nobody living in the world. None knew 
which way to turn from the palace of the viceroy. 

For three hundred years New Spain was surrounded by a Chinese 
wall of exclusion; exclusion of foreigners, of all education which was 
not religious and all commercial intercourse which did not come direct- 
ly from Spain. A dozen ships which sailed twice a year from Sevilla 
to Mexico brought all the necessities and luxuries needed for a popu- 
lation of several millions and sailed back to the old country laden with 
the gold and silver of Mexico. The Index Expurgatorius of the 
Roman See saw to it that no books except inocuous religious treaties 
reached New Spain. This encouraged smuggling, intellectual as well 
as commercial. 

A few years before the struggle for Independence the population of 
New Spain was about 5,300,000 inhabitants which were divided in this 
manner : 

European (Spanish) 60,000 

Creoles 900,000 

Mestizos 1,500,000 

Indians 2,850,000 

Total 5,310,000 

So there will be observed that in three hundred years the population 
had increased from a few million Indians and a handful of Spaniards 
to 900,000 Creoles and a million and a half mestizos. 

Decrees abolishing slavery were very numerous, but did not prevent 
this system of oppression from continuing. 

The contempt for the mestizos was a great factor in the feeling of 
rebellion engendered against Spanish rule. So great was the contempt 
for the mestizos and even the Creoles by the born Spaniards, that one 

6 



of the later viceroys, after the question of home rule had arisen, de- 
clared "that as long as a Castih'an remained in the country, though he 
were no more than a cobbler, he ought to rule in New Spain." 

Most of the Spaniards who became wealthy, returned to Spain, a 
great many of those who remained behind did so because they were 
poor. The Church took deep roots in Mexico, over four-fifths of the 
land in Mexico was in the hands of the religious orders and the Church, 
growing richer, lost its spiritual hold on the people. 

As a proof of the ascendancy of the clergy in political matters, the 
case of Mexican deputies to the Cortez in Cadiz in 1810, who were 
almost all canons, may be cited. 

The Dominicans alone might be said to have furnished a powerful 
cause for the overthrow of Spanish rule, at the very time that they 
were laboring hardest to uphold it as it manifested signs of tottering. 
And all the orders by seizing and holding vast amounts of property, 
by building churches and monasteries in times when the people were 
suffering the most abject poverty, and by enforcing the laws of tithes 
and gaining control of wealth which should have been applied to en- 
courage industry and relieving the needs of the people, conspired to 
stimulate the popular discontent which finally broke out into the open 
revolt. A creole priest raised the standard of revolt in Mexico on 
September 16th, 1810. His name was Hidalgo, or by his full name, 
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. He was caught, sentenced to death by the 
Inquisition and his head with that of four of his lieutenants was stuck 
on pikes on the four corners of the public square, in Guanajuato in 
1811, where they remained until 1821. The greatest military genius of 
the revolution was another mestizo priest, Jose Maria Morelos ; there 
were other patriot priests, Mariano Matamoros, Dr. Cos, Navarrete, 
and Torres. 

The Church excommunicated the partisans and authors of Mexican 
Independence. 

It must be known that the clergy violated the secret of the confes- 
sional to denounce its enemies, which is one of the reasons for the 
burning of the confessionals during the ten years' struggle for Inde- 
pendence, in the war of the Reform and during the Constitutionalist 
revolution. 

There is historical proof of this. Don Manuel Iturriaga, canon of 
Valladolid, who was affiliated with the revolutionary movement, on his 
deathbed, confessed everything and the conspiracy was discovered be- 
cause the father confessor violated the secret of the confessional. 

Liberalism in Spain threatened the great interests of the Catholic 
Church in Mexico and therefore it demanded "an absolute separation 
from Spain and its radicalism." 

The clergy began to hold secret consultations with their closest 
adherents among the "Old Spaniards," and to devise means whereby 
the rights and prerogatives of the religious orders might be conserved, 
the immense revenues of the Church saved, and the co-operation of 
the people of Mexico (whom they had previously estranged) secured 

7 



in their interests. Augustin de Iturbide was chosen as the tool by the 
clergy to effect a union between the Mexican revolutionists and the 
native army under the orders of the viceroy. 

On the 21st of February, 1821, Iturbide succeeded in having the 
plan of Iguala adopted by the revolutionists. The first Constitution 
was given the name of the "Three Guarantees," because Religion, In- 
dependence and Union were to be symbolized in the national flag, with 
the colors red, green and white. 

Iturbide's defection broke Spanish resistance and he was appointed 
president of the five regents who represented the government ad 
interim. In a turbulent meeting of the Congress, from which the re- 
publican members were in a measure excluded, Iturbide was elected 
Emperor of Mexico. He abdicated on the 20th of March, 1823. 

Thirty-six articles were adopted in January to serve as a basis for a 
future Constitution. The third article of the Constitution read as 
follows : "The Religion of the Mexican nation is, and will perpetually 
be the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will protect it by wise 
and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of any other whatever." 

Ivucas Alaman was the intellectual leader of the clerical party and 
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was its military tool. 

In 1832, Gomez Farias, Vice-President, with Santa Anna, proposed 
the first reforms, that is to say, the abolition of the "fueros" or privi- 
leges (1) of the clergy and army, the separation of the Church and 
State, including the suppression of the monastic orders and more par- 
ticularly the abolition of the right of the ecclesiastics to interfere in 
secular affairs. 

In 1833, Gomez Farias began a system of government reforms which 
were only put into execution in 1859, after the three years' war. 

Santa Anna played the part of the traitor and tool of the Church 
until at last he was driven from the country in 1854, but not until he 
had led his country into two disastrous wars which lost Mexico as 
much territory as is contained in the whole of Mexico today. 

In 1847, when Santa Anna was in the field organizing an army to 
fight the Americans, "Gomez Farias, who was in charge of the gov- 
ernment, proposed a loan of four million dollars from the Church 
which was practically in possession of all the available wealth of the 
country. The Church refused and the clericals created dissensions 
among the troops for the defense of the country." For a month the 
streets of the capital were scenes of wild confusion and violence. 

The efforts of Gomez Farias to obtain assistance of the Church in 
the prosecution of the war was resisted by the "Polkos" (clericals and 
gilded youths). While the squadron of the United States was in the 
Gulf of Mexico, the "Polkos" were seeking to make terms of peace 
with the United States, without attempting to preserve the integrity 
of the national territory. 

It was the action of the "Polkos" that made the war, on the part of 
the army of the United States, a mere military progress through 
Mexico from the borders of the land to the capital. 

8 



"The systematic encouragement of desertion from Scott's army was 
another device in which much reh'ance was placed, and the plan was 
so far successful that a certain number, principally Irish Catholics, did 
desert at Jalapa and Puebla." 

The war with Texas, with the United States, French Intervention, 
were all deliberately planned by the reactionary party so as to avoid 
a civil war and unite all factions under its flag. As we have said be- 
fore, Santa Anna was the tool of the Church. The master mind of the 
clerical party was Lucas Alaman. Some extracts from a letter of 
Lucas Alaman, to the President-elect Santa Anna, follow: 

"We are absolutely opposed to the federal system in the matter of 
elections which has obtained hitherto and the elective city council 
(municipal home rule), and to everything which bears any relation to 
popular elections. . . . And we are persuaded that any and all of 
these things can be satisfactorily carried out without Congress. We 
desire, however, that you proceed under the counsel of a few advisers 
who will outline your executive action. . . . We have the moral 
strength of the united clergy, and likewise the land owners. _. . . 
For the rest we do not care, no matter what your personal convictions 
may be, to see you surrounded by flatterers who will influence you 
. . . you are already possessed of our desires, of the strength and the 
support which is ours, and we presume you have the same ideas. If 
it should happen not to prove so, it will he had for the nation — and 
you. ..." 

Lucas Alaman. 

The advanced liberals in Mexico promulgated on the 21st of Novem- 
ber, 1855, what is known as the "Ley Juarez." The ecclesiastical 
authorities saw at once, in the passage of the "Ley Juarez" an attack 
upon the rights of the Church, — their petted fueros — and they pro- 
tested most vigorously against the passage of the law. 

The clerical opposition brought into prominence the Bishop of 
Puebla, the Rt. Rev. Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Davalos, who 
had been but recently advanced to the Episcopate. In March, 1854, he 
anathemized from the pulpit, as heretical, the doctrines of Ocampo and 
Miguel Lerdo. His zeal in that regard was rewarded by his elevation 
to the Episcopate. "Each proposition regarding the new Constitution 
was an attack upon some abuse that had existed, perhaps for three 
centuries, and involved the wealth or the influence of some powerful 
class. It was proposed, for example, to prohibit forced labor, 
monopolies, alacabalas (or interstate custom duties), the acquisition 
of property by religious communities. These prohibitions were sug- 
gested not as mere doctrinaire theories, but as solutions of some of the 
social problems presented to the reformers of the Constitution. In 
opposition to the proceedings of Congress, the Bishops throughout the 
country issued pastoral letters denouncing the reform propositions and 
the entire Constituent Congress. They went so far as to excommuni- 
cate certain officials in the City of Mexico, who had been active in ex- 



ecuting the "Ley Lerdo" as well as all the government officials and 
even the clerks in the offices." 

In January, 1856, the revolt broke out full force. The garrisons of 
Morelia, Michoacan, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Guadadajara and 
San Juan de Ulloa started "cuartelazos" munities, with the war cry: 
"Religion y Fueros," religion and privileges, while in Oaxaca, the 
curates Carlos Parro, Jose Gabriel Castellanos and Jose Maria Garcia, 
together with Captain Bonifacio Blanco, headed a military uprising 
proclaiming the full establishment of the ecclesiastical and military 
privileges, and the upholding of the Catholic religion to the exclusion 
of all others. In Jalisco the friars of the monastery of El Carmen 
joined with the soldiery in a military revolt. 

As was to be expected, the clericals were defeated, Santa Anna was 
driven into exile and the Constitution of 1857 was proclaimed. 

Article V says among other things : "The law, in consequence, does 
not recognize monastic orders, and will not permit their establishment, 
no matter what may be the denomination or purpose for which they 
pretend to be established." 

Article XXVIII. "The State and Church are independent. Congress 
cannot make any laws establishing or forbidding any religion ..." 
The Archbishop of Mexico, Don Lazaro de la Garza ,announced in 
circulars sent to the Bishops a few days after the order for the taking 
of the oath had been given, that since the articles of this Constitution 
were inimical to the institution, doctrine and rites of the Catholic 
Church, neither the clergymen nor laymen could take this oath under 
any pretext whatever. In view of this communication the Bishops of 
all the dioceses sent circulars to their respective country vicars and the 
parish curates and to the other ecclesiastics, informing them, First: 
That it was not lawful to swear allegiance to the Constitution because 
its articles were contrary to the institution, doctrines and rites of the 
Catholic Church. Second: That the communication must be made 
public and copies of it distributed as widely as possible. Third : That 
those who had taken this oath must retract it at the confessional and 
make this retraction as public as possible, and they must notify the 
government of their action. 

Not satisfied with this, the clericals induced Pope Pius IX to issue 
a bull or mandate to disobey utterly the commands of the impious lib- 
eral government. Part of this document is as follows : "Thus we 
make known to the faith in Mexico and to the Catholic universe, that 
we energetically condemn every decree that the Mexican government 
has enacted against the Catholic religion, against the Church and her 
sacred ministers and pastors, against her laws, rights and property and 
also against the authority of the Holy See. We raise our Pontifical 
voice with apostllic freedom before you, to condemn, reprove and de- 
clare null, void, and without any value, the said decrees and all others 
which have been acted by the civil authorities in such contempt of the 
ecclesiastical authority of this Holy See, and with such injury to the 
religion, to the sacred pastors and illustrious men." 

10 



This remarkable document of the vicar of Christ on earth had its 
effect; "the friars patrolled the trenches of the revolting soldiery in 
Mexico City, exciting them to fight; then as I'n 1847, the clergy paid 
the wages of the troops, and their agents were bribing the officers of 
the government that swells the ranks of the enemy." 

In spite of all the excommunications and papal bulls, the liberals 
were victorious in the end and on the 11th of June, 1861, Juarez, the 
pure blooded Indian was proclaimed Constitutional President of 
Mexico. 

President Juarez expelled some foreign diplomats who had meddled 
in the political affairs of Mexico by favoring the reactionary elements. 
This was done to the Archbishop of Mexico, the Bishop of Michoacan 
and some high members of the clergy. As a consequence of this act, 
the French minister Saligny, the clergy and the clericals, Jose M, 
Gutierrez Estrada, Jose Manuel Hidalgo and General Juan N. Almonte 
asked Napoleon III to intervene in Mexico. French intervention took 
place between 1861 and 1865. This is what a French officer has to say 
about the behavior of the French soldiers in Mexico : "First of all 
they (the French) do not take any more prisoners and the wounded 
are killed. It is a real war of savages, unworthy of the Europeans." 
(Lieutenant G. Coine.) 

The United States recognized Juarez as the Constitutional president. 
In 1867 the liberals, under Juarez, defeated and drove out the French 
and in the same year they were victorious against the clericals who sup- 
ported Maximilian. On the 19th of May, 1867, Maximilian, Miramon 
and Mejia were judged and condemned to death. 

Then followed the presidency of Juarez, Lerdo de Tejada and Por- 
firio Diaz. 

Diaz came in as a revolutionary president and ended in his old age 
as a supporter of the renascent Catholic party. During the War of 
the Reform and French Intervention, three generals were at the head 
of the clericals: Leonardo Marquez, Miramon and Mejia. The first 
one managed to escape after the fall of the Empire and he lived in 
Havana in exile until 1898, when he came back to Mexico. At this 
time Porfirio Diaz was slowly, but surely, showing tendencies of going 
back to the old regime and Leonardo Marquez, Don Francisco Elguero 
and Sanchez Santos, who was editor of a Catholic paper called El Pais, 
collaborated with Diaz in this sense, that they were the originators of 
the new Catholic party of Mexico. Helping them were Francisco de 
la Hoz, Francisco Pascual Garcia, Eduardo Tamariz and Fernando 
Somellera. Francisco Elguero controlled the clergy in Michoacan and 
represented A. and E. Noriega, Spaniards, in the question of the drain- 
age of the Cienega de Zacapu (Mich) when they despoiled thousands 
of Indians of their lands, including oyer fifty square miles. It is well 
to call attention to the fact that Inigo Noriega, cousin of A. and E. 
Noriega, was known by popular opinion to be a silent partner of Por- 
firio Diaz. Fernando Somellera was entirely under the influence of the 
Archbishop of Mexico and collaborated with him and was assisted by 

11 



Carmelita Diaz, wife of Porfirio Diaz. As Porfirio Diaz was getting 
older, so the ascendancy of Carmelita Diaz increased. The efforts of 
the Protestants in creating industrial schools and churches in the north 
of Mexico, accelerated the formation of the secret Catholic party which 
laid its plans to counteract the influence of the Protestants by creating 
Catholic schools all over the country, under the tuition of priests and 
nuns, which were imported by the efforts of Mrs. Diaz. Priests, nuns 
and friars were imported from France, the same ones that had been 
expelled from their country, from Spain ; some came from the United 
States. In 1904 some American nuns were brought from Mobile, 
and Atlanta, and they built a convent sixteen miles from the capital. 
Many Mexicans became suspicious of these surreptitious immigrations 
and Felix Diaz, then chief of police under Porfirio Diaz, raided the 
first convent in 1905 and sent the inmates back to France. Several 
raids by Felix Diaz followed and three shiploads of nuns were osten- 
sibly sent back to the old country, but when the ships stopped at Pro- 
greso, the nuns landed there and after a while returned to Mexico. 

The raids took place under the direction of Feliz Diaz, and the 
round trip tickets of the peripatetic nuns were paid by Carmelita 
Diaz. It was a game of hide and seek, with the advantage on the side 
of the wife of the "Old Man." 

Carmelita Diaz was so certain that the religious orders had come to 
stay that she m formed the nuns to entertain no fear as to their safety 
as she was in a position to let them know of any action which might 
be taken against them. 

The Madero revolution was unexpected in its suddenness and vio- 
lence. It took everybody by surprise, the porfiristas, the cientificos, 
the clericals, Europe as well as America. 

By forcing the elimination of Diaz from power, the reactionary ele- 
ment saved the day for a while, especially as the clerical and reaction- 
ary F. L. de la Barra was successfully placed in the provisional presi- 
dency. De la Barra prepared the way for the overthrow of the Madero 
regime by working unceasingly in conjunction with the Catholic party 
in Mexico and in Washington, to discredit the new political order as 
represented by Madero. The new Catholic party came openly into 
being in 1911, when it put forth F. I. Madero as president and F. L. de 
la Barra as vice-president. Once the ticket was in power there would 
have been found a way of eliminating Madero ; unluckily for the 
renascent Catholic party, De la Barra was defeated at the polls. In 
Congress the Catholic party was represented by Elguero and F. de la 
Hoz and the opposition by F. Iglesias Calderon, Luis Cabrera, J. 
Urueta, Serapio Rendon and others. The Catholic party had made 
Madero its candidate, hoping to use him to its ends, but when it was 
discovered that Madero was not amenable to reason, it began opposing 
him bitterly, taking sides with every revolutionary movement which 
was initiated during the Madero regime, among which were l^he 
Orozco, Reyes, Felix Diaz revolts and later the Huerta treachery. 

During the tragic ten days in Mexico City, when Madero was assas- 

12 



•sinated, the high Catholic clergy favored the assassins in many ways 
.and later furnishing Huerta with forty million pesos to suppress the 
revolution. The Catholic prelates did not trust Felix Diaz because oi 
liis well known raids of convents and, therefore, they did not offer him 
-the presidency, but concentrated all their efforts on Huerta, until they 
succeeded in putting him in power. 

Although Huerta's friends claim that he was innocent of the murder 
of Madero by direct order, nevertheless it is an open secret that 
Rodolfo Reyes demanded the heads of Madero, Suarez and Basso, in 
revenge for his father's death; the other members of the cabinet de- 
manded the head of Gustavo Madero, who was murdered in the citadel 
where Felix Diaz had his headquarters. 

Huerta's professional secret is a secret of polichinelle, as every child 
knows that the murderous deed was a stepping stone to his dictator- 
ship. Huerta was the tacit accessory to the crime. No matter how 
many palliatory arguments the Mexican and American clericals may 
■give to white-wash their good friend Huerta, he can exclaim as Lady 
Macbeth : "Here's the smell of blood still ; all the perfumes of Arabia 
will not sweeten this little hand." 

One of Huerta's great political blunders was the naming of the 
clerical E. Tamariz as minister of public instruction, thus giving one 
of the most important portfolios to the Catholics. The whole Congress 
protested most vigorously and it was then that the dictator had them 
all put in jail, except the Catholic members, and then named a Congress 
•of his own. 

Doctor Urrutia, a pupil of the Jesuit College, was the lago of the 
■ clerical party, his friendship and influence over Huerta served him 
admirably, having been his political mentor and prompter since 1908, 
when Diaz was still in power. The great chance arrived during 
Madero's regime. As Huerta was only a soldier and not a politician, 
the clerical party picked out Dr. Urrutia as a president molder and 
accelerator. Up to that time Dr. Urrutia was known as the most bril- 
liant and successful surgeon in Mexico. 

When Huerta achieved power Dr. Urrutia became a member of his 
cabinet and official executioner of the most important enemies of his 
regime ; scores of well known victims disappeared mysteriously, among 
them a senator, Belsario Dominguez and an anti-clerical deputy, the 
Lie. Serapio Rendon. Dr. Urrutia was the most powerful, dreaded, 
hated man in Mexico; he was the modern inquisitor and hangman of 
the clerical party ; but instead of cowing the Mexicans into submission, 
"he drove the best element into the arms of the new revolution. 

But the clericals soon discovered to their discomfiture that Huerta, 
with all his ruthlessness, his cunning, cruelties, and his rhuch-vaunted 
strength, was really losing his grip on Mexico and that he had very 
little chance of being recognized by the Washington administration, 
therefore, they began casting about for another clerical presidential 
possibility. Dr. Urrutia was chosen as the only convenient and 
•obedient instrument of the Church. Thereupon the high clergy began 

13 



to conspire the "accidental removar of the dictator. A letter from the 
Archbishop of Michoacan to Dr. Urrutia revealed the intrigue. It 
says in part : "My profound sympathy and affection for you make me 
fear that these men's intrigues might put an obstacle on the path that 
our Lord and Blessed Mother have put before you to climb to the cul- 
minating position of Chief Executive of the Republic, which position.: 
will require of you the greatest sacrifice, but will at the same time lay 
before you a vast field in which to exercise your activity for the glory 
and honor of God and for the benefit of our beloved country." 

Huerta got wind of this little scheme to eliminate him, and sent 
his agents to arrest Dr. Urrutia and the conspiring prelates. Dr. 
Urrutia escaped by the skin of his teeth to Vera Cruz, where he begged 
the protection of Gen. Funston against the infuriated Mexicans who- 
were ready to lynch him. All the Mexican Bishops and Archbishops,, 
involved in the plot, fled from the wrath of Huerta and placed them- 
selves under the protection of the clerical Brazilian minister who 
represented the United States. Later they were smuggled out of 
Mexico City. The American press gave as reason for their sudden-, 
escape from Mexico an alleged conspiracy to get rid of them by the 
Constitutionalists, although at that time they controlled neither Mexico- 
City nor Vera Cruz. 

Vera Cruz became the center of political intrigue under the protec- 
tion of the American flag, against Huerta, against the Constitutionalists 
and in favor of intervention, that is to say, in favor of a quick march 
and occupation of Mexico City by the American troops. 

One of the reasons for the insistent demand that Vera Cruz should' 
be put under American control, was that that seaport was an ideal spot 
for revolutionary intrigue, first for its nearness to the capital and' 
secondly because the clericals, under the shadow of the American flag, 
could continue formenting revolts until a clerical had been placed in- 
power in Mexico City. The disappointment was great when the Amer- 
ican troops left and Carranza's soldiers entered the city of Vera Cruz. 

Nuns, friars, priests ,prelates, ex-federals, ex-cabinet members, all 
the revolutionary rig raff of Mexico, which had been playing politics,, 
left for Havana and the United States. The exiled Catholics were- 
received by their fellow believers in the United States and soon after- 
wards all the Catholic dailies, weeklies, monthlies were filled with 
stories of alleged persecutions and rapes and robberies committed by 
the revolutionists. 

A pamphlet, relating all these atrocities, was published in Chicago,. 
containing articles with replies to a pamphlet by John Lind and another- 
by Col. L C. Enriquez, a Mexican Catholic who had fought under Gen- 
eral Obregon and who denied the charges made by the exiles and their 
friends in the United States. The answer in this lurid pamphlet was- 
ostensibly signed by an American Catholic priest, but had really been 
written by the Mexican editor of "El Pais" (a Catholic daily in Mexico^ 
City) and translated for the benefit of the American author who never 
knew anything about Mexican history until the pamphlet was printed. 

14 



The fourth edition of this booklet ran to almost 100,000 copies, at 
fifteen cents a copy, so you can figure out for yourself that this chris- 
tian shepherd reaped from the alleged sufferings of the political 
martyrs a financial bonanza. 

The strangest part of this so-called religious persecutions is a fact 
which stands out glaringly, and that is that no Protestant clergymen 
were ever molested in Mexico. 

Why should the Indians and the middle class Mexicans, who are all 
Catholics, want to persecute and drive out their own "sky pilots" unless 
they had meddled in politics and taken sides with the oppressors, thus 
placing themselves outside the pale of the law? Why is it that the 
lower clergy has remained in Mexico and continues to attend to its 
spiritual duties without being molested by the Constitutionalists? 

This simple fact destroys all the statements published by the Ameri- 
can Catholic press that the Constitutionalists are persecuting the Cath- 
olic religion. What the revolutionists have really been doing was to 
weed out and extirpate forever the political scum and interlopers in 
Mexico. 

While the American troops were in possession of Vera Cruz, a list 
was made by General Jose Refugio Velasco, of all the ex-federal gen- 
erals who were in that port, this list showing that there were more 
than 450 ex-federal generals plotting more trouble under the protection 
of the American flag. 

This proves the harmful influence of unwarranted foreign occupa- 
tion. While the American troops were supposed to be doing good by 
enforcing peace and the respect of rights, they were harboring a nest 
of trouble brewers, thereby making more difficult the already difficult 
task undertaken by Don Venustiano Carranza^ — that of pacifying the 
Republic. 

It is also shown that Major Frank Joyce, an officer of the 14th Regi- 
ment of Artillery, which was sent to Vera Cruz, showed more than the 
usual interest in getting together stories told by the refugees, of atro- 
cities and persecutions against monks and nuns, without troubling him- 
self to find out whether those stories were true or not. They were 
stories of monks having been shot in Guadalajara, and of nuns who 
had been outraged by the soldiers. Allowing that anything of the kind 
might have happened in isolated instances, it was the exception and 
not the rule, and if Major Joyce had taken the trouble, he would have 

found that most of the stories told him were stories, told for the 

purpose of capturing the sympathies of an unsuspecting public, which 
did not know that the laws of Mexico expressly forbid the presence of 
religious orders, under any pretext whatever. 

Those stories Major Joyce carefully gathered and sent copies to 
Cardinal Farley and to the Hon. William J. Bryan in Washington. 
Father Carlos de Heredia, who, while in New York, stopped at the 
Church of St. Francis Xavier, making a trip to Washington in Decem- 
ber, 1914, where he had a conference with Secretary Bryan. He left 
immediately afterwards for Havana, to interview the monks and nuns 

IS 



m that city, under instructions of Cardinal Farley. Major Joyce 
pushed his zeal to such an extent as to make a trip to Mexico City in- 
cognito, just to see if he could get hold of anything on which he could 
make more charges against the Constitutionalists. 

Mr. S. Augusto Zubieta declared that he knew that the last effort 
■of the Catholic party was to back a new revolutionary movement, at 
the head of which they wanted to place Felix Diaz and General Itur- 
bide. The Catholic party had already put in the hands of Felix Diaz, 
through an American prelate, a check for ONE HUNDRED THOU- 
SAND DOLLARS, with which Don Felix was to go to Havana to 
rally his followers and begin his preparation to start a new revolution. 
Their plan was to charter vessels which would land arms and ammuni- 
tion on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, from which they would work into 
Oaxaca and there begin operation against Carranza. 

All this was being done with the active support of the Catholic party 
in the United States, which influenced by the false reports circulated 
hy the enemies of the Constitutionalists had from the beginning antag- 
onized the revolution. 

Herewith is printed an affidavit, written and sworn to by Mr. S. A. 
Zubieta, a Mexican Catholic and an ex- federal officer : 

I, Salvador A. Zubieta, do hereby declare that on or about December, 

1914 and January, 1915, I had occasion to meet Cardinal and 

talking over the Mexican situation, we discussed several questions of 
importance, among them the alleged actions of Carranza against the 
Catholic Church and he confided to me that the Catholics in this coun- 
try were disposed to back a new revolution, of which Felix Diaz was 
to be the head. The instigator of this movement is the well known 
murderer, Cecilio Ocon, who seems to have gained the ear and the con- 
fidence of Cardinal , the said Cardinal having believed unques- 

tioningly all the false representations made by this unscrupulous mur- 
derer. The Cardinal also asked if I would help in this, probably be- 
cause he thought my family connections in Mexico and the fact of my 
being a Catholic, would gain some advantage to the cause. Cardinal 

also stated that many Catholic institutions in this country were 

ready to back this movement with about ten million dollars. 
New York City, February 27th, 1915. 

(Signed) Sal. Augusto Zubieta. 
State of New York I S.S. 
County of New York I 
Sworn before me this 27th 
day of February, 1915. 

(Signed) W. J. Berow, 

Notary Public, 
New York County No. 374. 
New York Reg. No. 5255. 
[s^al] 
William J. Berow, 

Notary Public, 

New York County. 

16 



This remarkable document proves two things : one that the Catholk 
party in the United States is playing politics surreptitiously, and sec- 
ondly, that it is not doing it intelligently. If the history of the rise and 
downfall of the political power of the Catholic Church in Europe is not 
an obvious lesson to the Catholic politicians in America, certainly the 
defeat of its political power in Mexico should be a warning. 

The religious strength, dogmas and spirituality of the Catholic 
Church cannot be discussed here as not belonging to this argument. It 
is the same old story. It begins everywhere modestly, keeping to its 
spiritual duties. Slowly, but surely, it acquires wealth, real estate, a 
press of its own and then falls to the all-mastering ambition and is 
tfempted to play politics — which is invariably followed by its political 
elimination. 

If the master minds in Rome were defeated and lost the temporal 
power of the Church in Italy, where the Catholics are in a majority^ 
how can picayune clerical politicians in the United States hope to 
control America politically, where the Catholics are in a minority? 

After forty years of hostility to the Italian Government the Holy See 
realized its mistake and made advances. In an interview with Italian 
Catholics, Pope Benedict XV stated that the Italian Catholics should be 
first of all Italians. This was said to offset the publicity given by the 
enemies of the Holy See that the interests of the Catholic Church were 
with Austria and its political integrity, as against Italy and its govern- 
ment, which had despoiled it of its temporal power. 

This attitude of the present Pope was not only eminently Christian 
but also statesmanlike. Pope Benedict XV ought to be and he will be 
informed of the intrigues of the Mexican prelates and the Mexican, 
clergy to foment revolutions and bloodshed so as to incite the Ameri- 
can Government to intervene in Mexico. 

To prove that the Mexican prelates now exiled in the United States 
are not in sympathy with Mexican aims, struggles and sufferings we 
quote the following from the "Pueblo" in Vera Cruz, March 26th, 1915. 

A protest from the Catholic priests in Mexico. 
To Don Venustiano Carranza, Chief of the Constitutionalist army and 
in charge of the Executive Power of the Union: 

"We, the undersigned Catholic priests of the Archbishopric of Mex- 
ico, take pleasure in stating that it is with regret and disapproval that 
we have seen a number of Catholic refugees in foreign countries, acting 
on the advice and under the influence of an association which with the 
pretext of protecting the Catholic cause, has long been trying to inter- 
fere in our national aiTairs, address a petition to a foreign government 
for the protection of the Church in Mexico. We protest to you that 
none of us have taken part in these measures which we consider anti- 
patriotic and unnecessary. It is true that we have to lament several 
injuries in persons and things pertaining to the cult and service of the 
Church, but we consider all this a sad consequence of the revolution 
which has affected our country in its very foundation, and which, on 

17 



tearing up many harmful elements, sweeps away at the same time, with 
irresistable force, others which are harmless ; but we confess that on 
part of the most distinguished personalities of the revolution, we have 
received attentions for which we are thankful, and many times also, 
the guarantees to which we are entitled as Mexican citizens. We trust 
therefore, without resorting to any foreign power, to succeed in obtain- 
ing all the guarantees and rights consistent with the laws that govern 
us, which will permit us, far from all political action, to devote our- 
selves to the moralization of the poor and to the pacification of our 
country, on the basis of the respect which is due to the constituted 
authority and fraternity of all Mexicans. Please accept this mani- 
festation of our feelings and our gratitude and respect." 

Following are the signatures of the Catholic priests : 

Dr. Antonio J. Paredes, Vicar General of the Archbishopric of 
Mexico ; Jose Cortes, rector ; Silvestre Hernandez, Clemente M. 
Cordoba, Francisco 9. Alvarez, Manuel Rodriguez F., Edoardo D. 
Paredes, Bruno Martinez, Guillermo Trischler, Gerardo Anaya, Augus- 
tin Alvarez, Domingo Rojas, Felipe de la O, Manuel Cadenas, Alberto 
Gosca. 

Then followed the signatures of several Spanish priests. 

This manifesto or protest of the Mexican Catholic priests should be a 
salutary lesson in ethics and Christianity to the militant Catholic pol- 
iticians and trouble-makers in the United States. 

The historical facts in this pamphlet are taken from the following 
authors : 

From Empire to Republic, A. H. Noll ; Historia del Pueblo Mex- 
icano, Carlos Pereyra; De la Dictatura a la Anarquia, Ramon Prida; 
A Short History of Mexico, A. H. Noll ; The United States and Mex- 
ico, 1821-1848, G. L. Rives; The Mexican People and their struggle 
for Freedom, L. G. de Lara and E. Pinchon ; Mexico a traves de los 
siglos ; Compendio de la Historia de Mexico, L. P. Verdia. 

The American Catholic papers have advertised the news that millions of 
property belonging to the Catholic Church in Mexico, had been either destroyed 
or confiscated by the Constitutionalists. The Catholic Church in Mexico has 
not owned any property since 1859 and even the churches are government prop- 
erty which are rented out to the clergy. The fact that religious orders are for- 
bidden to stay, in other words, are outlawed in Mexico, was never mentioned 
by the Catholic clergy. All through the revolution prominent Catholics and the 
Catholic press have attacked the Constitutionalists either in ignorance or bad 
faith. A continuation of a campaign of misstatements, hostility and hatred by 
the American Catholics, will only succeed in driving the Mexicans to do what 
the Catholics fear most : they will throw them into the arms of the Protestant 
Church, which will act as a healthy balance against the political designs of the 
Catholic Church. 

Extracts from the Laws of the Reform. 

Law of July 21st, 1859. 
Art. 3. There shall be perfect independence between the affairs of 
the State and the affairs purely ecclesiastical. The government will 
limit itself to protecting with its authority the public worship of the 
'Catholic religion and any other religion. 

18 



Art. 4, The ministers of the faith for the administration' of the 
•sacraments and other rehgious functions will be permitted to accept 
;gifts and oblations offered in return for services rendered, but neither 
gifts nor indemnities shall be rendered in the form of real estate. 

Art. 5. The existent religious orders, irrespective of denomination 
or for what purpose created, and all archconfraternities, confraternities 
and brotherhoods connected with the religious communities and the 
cathedrals, parishes or any churches, shall be suppressed throughout 
the entire republic. 

Art. 6. The foundation and erection of new convents or religious 
orders of archconfraternities, confraternities or brotherhoods of what- 
ever form or appellation is prohibited. Likewise the wearing of the 
garb of the suppressed orders is forbidden. 

Law of December 14th, 1874. 

•First Section. 

Art. 1. The State and the Church are independent of each other. — 

No one will be empowered to dictate laws establishing or prohibiting 
any religion; but the State exercises authority over them, in relation 
to the conservation of public order and the respect of its institutions. 

Art. 2. The State in the Republic guarantees the exercise of all 
cults. — 

It will prosecute and punish only those practices and acts, authorized 
by some cult, which may be in violation of our penal laws. 

Second Section. 
Art. 14. No religious institution may acquire real estate or capital 
invested in real estate with the exception of the temples to be used 
solely for the public service of the cult or the buildings which may be 
strictly necessary for such service. 

Third Section. 

Art. 19. The State does not recognize any monastic order nor can 
it permit their establishment, no matter what the denomination or 
object under which they may have been created. — 

The Secret orders which have been established shall be considered 
as illegal and the authorities can dissolve them should their members 
live in Comrnunities ; and in any case, their chiefs, superiors or direc- 
tors will be judged as guilty of an infraction of individual guarantees, 
in conformity to Article 963 of the Penal Code of the district, to be 
enforced in the whole Republic. 

Art. 20. All religious societies whose individuals live under certain 
peculiar laws by virtue of promises or temporary or perpetual vows 
subject to one or more superiors, even when the individuals of the 
orders shall live in different places, shall be considered monastic orders 
in conformity with the foregoing article. — 

<1) The clergy and the army were tried by their own courts. 

19 



REPLY OF CARDINAL FARLEY. 

New York Times — 
Cardinal Farley made the following statement from his residence^ 
452 Madison Avenue : 

New York, March 4, 1916. 
To the Bditor of The New York Times : 

Page seven of today's issue of The New York Times has a reference 
to and long quotations from a pamphlet entitled "What the Catholic 
Church Has Done to Mexico," by Dr. A. Paganel of Mexico City. 
This document has been circulated very extensively in this country, 
and has been sent to the members of Congress. It has never been re- 
ferred to or quoted in the columns of the metropolitan press until to- 
day. 

Dr. Paganel mentions my name twice in his pamphlet, and also prints 
an affidavit sworn to by "S. A. Zubieta, a Mexican Catholic and an ex- 
federal officer," in which it is charged that the Catholic Church in the 
United States is ready to back a revolution against the Carranza Gov- 
ernment with $10,000,000. 

First of all a charge is made that "one of the reasons for the in- 
sistent demand that Vera Cruz should be put under American control, 
was that the seaport was an ideal spot for revolutionary intrigue, first 
for its nearness to the capital and secondly because the clericals, under 
the shadow of the American flag, could continue formenting revolts 
until a clerical had been placed in power in Mexico City." The only 
revolts fomented under the shadow of the flag in Vera Cruz were the 
stories of the outraged nuns and persecuted priests and Bishops, who 
sought refuge and sanctuary there, and who consequently were able 
to tell the world the real nature of the task undertaken by the great 
pacifist, Don Venustiano Carranza. 

Major Joyce^'s Charge;s. 
Major Francis Joyce, Catholic Chaplain of the Fourteenth Regiment 
of Artillery, is charged with having sent copies of the stories told him^ 
by the refugees in Vera Cruz to "Cardinal Farley and to the Hon. 
William J. Bryan in Washington." Any fair-minded citizen of this 
country will scarcely find fault with the Major's action. He wanted 
both the Government of the country and the representatives of the 
Catholic Church in the United States to know the real condition of 
affairs. Major Joyce's communication to me was confidential. I have 
had occasion to learn that Major Joyce told the truth, and the progress 
of events since the American occupation of Vera Cruz leads me to be- 
lieve that he must be a particularly obnoxious person to the present 
Government of Mexico, and to such an apologist as the writer of the 
pamphlet in question, because he defended truth and justice and 
morality, 

I am charged also with having sent the Rev. Carlos de Heredia to 
Havana with instructions to interview the monks and nuns in that city. 

20 



^he only Cohnection 1 have ever had with the Rev. leather tteredia, 
who was a Jesuit refugee from Mexico and was in this city during the 
latter part of 1914, is that I listened to his story on rehgious conditions 
in Mexico, and tried to help some artist friend of his, who was in dis- 
tress. Father Heredia also tried to make the truth known, and fought 
for justice and morality, and I have no doubt that he is persona non 
grata with the Carranzistas. 

A much more serious charge, however, is that quoted in the Times 
this morning, that "the Catholic party of Mexico had already put into 
the hands of Felix Diaz, through an American prelate, a check for 
$100,000, with which Don Felix was to go to Havana to rally his fol- 
lowers and begin his preparation to start a new revolution." 

QUOTKS FROM PaMPHI,e:T. 

The authority for this statement seems to be S. Augusto Zubieta, who 
"declared he knew that the last effort of the Catholic party was to back 
a new revolutionary movement," etc. There follows in the pamphlet 
an affidavit sworn to by him before William J. Berow, a notary of New 
York County, on Feb. 27, 1915. This affidavit reads as follows: 
I, Salvador A. Zubieta, do hereby declare that on or about 
December, 1914, and January, 1915, I had occasion to meet Car- 
dinal , and, talking over the Mexican situation, we discussed 

several questions of importance, among them the alleged actions 
of Carranza against the Catholic Church, and he confided to me 
that the Catholics in this country were disposed to back a new 
revolution, of which Felix Diaz was to be the head. The in 
stigator of this movement is the well-known murderer, Cecilio 
Ocon, who seems to have gained the ear and the confidence of 

Cardinal , the said Cardinal having believed unquestioningly 

all the false representations made by this unscrupulous murderer. 
The Cardinal also asked if I would help in this, probably because 
he thought my family connections in Mexico and the fact of my 
being a Catholic would gain some advantage to the cause. Car- 
dinal also stated that many Catholic institutions in this coun- 
try were ready to back this movement with about $10,000,000. 

Sai,. Augusto Zubikta. 
New York City, February 27, 1915. 

As I had occasion to meet Mr. Zubieta in December, 1914, (neither 
myself nor my secretary being able to recall the January meeting), I 
presume that I must thank Dr. Paganel for not mentioning my name in 
such an odious connection. Colonel Zubieta, as he represented himself, 
called at my residence and I received him and listened to his account of 
the Mexican difficulties. Just at that time I was listening to everyone 
who could give me any information about Mexico, as I had returned 
shortly before from a rather extended trip to Europe. I also listened 
to the story of the Colonel's distress, and as the Colonel himself has 
been kind enough to inform me, I sent him to Mr. Paul Fuller, who 
furnished him with a letter of introduction to a Mr. W. S. Valentine, 

21 



with whom he ohtained empioyment. On December 3l, l9l4, Colonel 
Zubieta wrote me the following letter: 

Eminence: With the greatest respect I take the liberty to ad- 
dress these lines to your Eminence in order to expose my actual 
unfortunate situation, and respectfully request your kind assist- 
ance. 

As directed by your Eminence, I visited Mr. Paul Fuller, who 
had the kindness to provide me with a letter of introduction to 
Mr. W. S. Valentine, who employed me in their service, but un- 
happily this position lasted only two weeks, and now I have the 
misfortune to find myself again under the same sad conditions. 
My debts are increasing daily, and my credit in the house where 
I am boarding has already reached its limit. 

Now, to add another sorrow to those already weighing upon my 
existence I have just received the news that my mother's health 
IS so delicate that her life is seriously endangered. 

I beg to appeal to your Eminence as the sole being on whom I 
can place my only hopes for assistance, with the assurance that if 
you should have the kindness to provide me with the means to re- 
turn to my country, I shall not only return to your Eminence the 
amount received, but also be thankful to you for life. 

I pray that your Eminence may enjoy the best health, and, 
wishing for your Excellence a happy and bright New Year, I re- 
main very respectfully yours, 

Coi,. Sai.v. Augusto Zubieta. 

Sent Aid to Zubie^ta, 

In reply to this very touching appeal I sent through my secretary, 
the Rev. Thomas G. Carroll, a check for $25 with the following note : 

January 8, 1915. 
Dear Colonel: His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop, directs 
me to forward you the inclosed amount, ($25), in reply to your 
request of the 31st ult., and regrets that he has overlooked the 
matter until now. He hopes this will not arrive too late, and is 
sorry to learn that your mother is unwell. With best wishes, I am 
sincerely yours, 

Thomas G. Carrgi^l, Secretary. 

Colonel Salvator A. Zubieta, 162 West Eightieth Street. 

Colonel Zubieta never acknowledged the receipt of my charity, nor 
have I ever heard from him since. I know that he indorsed the check 
to some one named Alice Gonzalez, and as I think of the matter now 
I wonder why I did not draw on the large revolutionary fund at my dis- 
posal to be of greater assistance to the Colonel. 

I think Colonel Zubieta's letter to me offers sufficient denial of the 
charges he makes, and I consider that the publication of it is another 

22 



evidence of the methods employed by the present Government in Mex- 
ico to discredit its opponents. 

Because I frankly admit that I am opposed to this Government, 
which has established itself by appealing to the worst elements in the 
country and secured its power and ascendency in the early stages of its 
growth by disregarding every principle of justice and morality. And 
I am confident that the day is not far distant when the great mass of 
the Mexican people will be released from the tyrannical yoke that it 
has imposed on them. What Dr. Paganel and his friends are really 
anxious about is that the world may not learn what the present Con- 
stitutionalist Government has done to Mexico and the Catholic Church 
in Mexico, 

John Cardinal Farley, 
Archbishop of New York. 



An impartial reading of Cardinal Farley's letter to the Times in 
replv to the accusations and the affidavit of Col. S. A. Zubieta brings 
forth first one glaring fact, that the Cardinal does not deny flatly the 
charg'es made bv Col. Zubieta, but devotes almost a column of space 
to incriminations of bad faith, ingratitude agfainst the Colonel. 

Tt does not seem clear how the publication of the letters of S. A. 
Zubieta makes the charsre less serious. It simply proves that the 
gratitude towards the benefactor could not stand the strain of indig- 
nation and patriotism of a Mexican soldier and a Catholic, who dis- 
covered that foreign prelates were plotting to plunge Mexico into 
another civil war. 

Secondlv, the name of the Cardinal was not mentioned in the affi- 
davit: there are other Cardinals in America. 

Third, the Cardinal is very generous with the words, truth, justice 
and morality. 

Is it considered truthful, iust and moral bv the Cardinals, the Right 
Reverends and Reverends of the Catholic Church in America to speak 
of the persecutions of the nuns and friars in Mexico and never men- 
tion the fact that their verv presence there Cdiseuised as civilians') is 
aeainst the laws of Mexico and has been so since 1859? To speak 
and publish broadcast about the destruction of Church property, when 
it is well known that the Catholic Church has not legallv owned any 
property in Mexico since 1R59? Is it considered moral and just by 
Christian prelates to foment trouble, discord and finance a revolution 
in a foreig-n countrv, for the sake of revenge or for the purpose of 
acauiring temporal power? 

The war of 1847 had been represented in the Mexican papers, of 
the time, as being, on the part of the United States, a war of rapine 
and plunder, a war on "impiety" conducted by heretics, who were 

23 



bent on robbing the churches and destroying true religion. 

At present, and for over a year, the Mexican clericals in conjunction 
with the American clericals have joined in a campaign of vilification 
against the Mexicans and active propaganda for American Interven- 
tion. 

It seems grotesque that the American clericals do not realize the 
immorality of their demands: that the United States Government 
should invade Mexico, kill several thousand Mexicans and Americans, 
spend several millions of the tax payers money for the sake of aveng- 
ing the persecutions and death of foreign nuns and monks who were 
outlawed and the restoration of property which does not belong to 
them? 

The American clericals are befogging the issue by trying to make it 
appear a religious instead of a political question. The American 
Catholics are not such children and dunces as to be forever deceived 
by evasions and misrepresentations. Truth, justice and morality will 
out, like murder. 

One thing can be safely prophesied: the Mexicans have released 
themselves of the tyrannical yoke of the clericals and their political 
rule in Mexico and they will never willingly and freely place themselves 
under their rule again. 

The American prelates and the American Catholic politicians had 
better keep away and not meddle in Mexican politics — or they might 
burn their fingers in the attempt. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





015 991 130 5 # 



